Disabled by Default: how markup can support best practice in accessibility

Abstract

Accessibility is not a single, straightforward concept. For a particular user, the accessibility of any resource is determined by a web of factors, first by the nature and severity of the disability (cognitive, physical, or mental), then influenced by poverty, tech access, language, and many other factors. Designing content to take account of accessibility on this wide scale is a daunting task. Markup is well placed to address accessibility, because markup is optimized to encourage choice. It allows us to say what things are, and choose later (or, better, allow the user to choose) what that means for how content is displayed, printed, spoken, or otherwise manifested in the output. It also allows us to say how things relate to each other, so that we can easily offer choices of the same content in different formats. Concrete examples of what this means in some common markup outputs will highlight things we could be doing in our own practice to encourage more accessible content creation from markup.

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